We gain the kingdom of heaven by making the best of our blessings, by keeping alive our love for God, and by treasuring the happiness of others as much as out own.

Wednesday, 8/2/17

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a buried treasure or a pearl of great price. That leaves us asking just what he meant by the kingdom of heaven.

I might be wrong, by I take his kingdom of heaven to be a combination of the three parables Jesus gave us  in Chapter Twenty-Five of Matthew’s Gospel.

In his first of those parables Jesus praised the man who used his five talents to earn five more. In his second parable Jesus congratulated the man who had oil in his lamp when the groom came. In his third parable Jesus called blessed the man who looked out for the needs of his fellow men.

By that reckoning, we gain the kingdom of heaven when we first, have made the best of sll the blessings we were born with; secondly, when we have kept alive our love for God; and thirdly, when we have  put high value not only on our own well being, but on the happiness of our fellow men.